This is with reference to the article in the March 6 edition of Dawn, entitled “Speakers criticize nuclear policy”.
The reporter has loosely stated the following: “Dr Hoodbhoy, who is an ardent advocate of unilateral dismantling of nuclear weapons by Pakistan, voiced his ideas and said that since 1987 four times India and Pakistan had become locked in a situation when the nuclear option looked like a possibility.”
The first phrase of this sentence is a complete misrepresentation of Dr Hoodbhoy’s stance on Pakistan’s nuclear policy. I know him well enough to say that he does not believe that Pakistan alone should retreat in the arms race. Such statements only mislead the public into thinking that Dr Hoodbhoy advocates ‘sell-out’. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Actually I have great admiration for Prof. Hoodbhoy, he has always stood by his principled approach and his words even when his views are not popular.
Recently in a series of lectures in upstate New York, which were broadcasted on NPR as well on Free Speech Radio, he criticized both India and Pakistan for getting into a nuclear arms race while half their population starves and for having huge military budgets while education suffers. He slammed United States for criticizing others for building nuclear bombs & WMDs while carrying on research on its own ‘usable nuclear weapons. He also tried to justify his support of war against the Taliban and his anger & dissatisfaction on the war in Iraq which he thought was totally unnecessary.
just because he makes sense most of the time does not mean that sometimes he could be just off his rocker. In general I like his stuff but this one is a bit lame if he indeed is favouring unilateral disarmament, if he is not, as rehman1 suggests that i have no prob with him.
